E 
•I 




Book. 



rrf 



9- ^^7 



4 



17^ 



CEREMONIES 



,# 



CONNECTED WITH THE UN¥EILING OF THE STSTUE OF 



GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, 



RT LEE CIRCLE, NE¥ ORLEANS, Lfl,, FEB. 22, 1884. 



o^ORATION^ 



"W 



BY HON. CHAS. E. FENNER 



POEM, By H. F. REQUIER, Esq. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF R. E. LEE MONUMENTAL ASSOCIATION. 



NEW ORLEANS: 

VV. B. StanslJury & Co. Print, 38 Natchez Street. 

1SS4. 



JJJL 

CEREMONIES Vf f 



CONNECTED WITH THE UNVEILING OF THE STKTUE OF 



GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, 



HT LEE CIRCLE, NEW ORLESNS, LH., FEB. 22, 1884. 



it 



ORATION 



ir 



By HON. CHAS. E. FENNER 

I 



POEM, By H. F. REQUIER, Esq. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF R, E. LEE MONUMENTAL ASSOCIATION, 



NEW ORLEANS: 

\V. B. Stansbury & Co. Print, 3S Natchez Street. 
1SS4. 



.L4 L4^ 



«*• *f CHAAfGft 






<1^ 



SI- 



LEE- 



3Y H. F. KEQUIEK. 



11^ 



Kear aloft the solid columu— 
Rear it higli that men may see 

How tiie valiaut ijonor valor — 
How the brave remember Lee. 

Poise him on the lolty summit 
Of the white enduring stone, 

Where his form may linger, teaching 
In dumb majesty alone. 

Never braver spirit battled, 
Never grander soldier shone, 

Thau this victor— vanciuished only 
When his hosts were overborne. 

Give him greeting wJiile he rises 

On this monument to-day, 
A» the warrior who led armies 

To the enemy's dismay; 

As the hero thrice encompissed — 
Thrice outnumbered by the foe — 

Who with all the odds agaiust him, 
ytili resisted overthrow. 

He, the leader of the legions— 

fie, the chieftain of the brave- 
He, the model nian and Christian, 
Sleeping where the willows wave - 

Shall be numbered with the noblest 
That have ever swayed the world, 

Though his cause be lost forever 
And his fated dag be furled . 

God anoint us in tiiis moment 
Of memorial for the dead — 

For the once contending armies 
Now united overhead — 

For the Blue and Gray together 
That so bravely fought and fell, 

When the North and South divided- 
Faced the dashing flame of hell. 

They are looking fiom the Heavens 
On this hallowed scene to-day. 

And the pipes of peace are playing 
To their spirits gentle sway. 

While we rear the solid column, 
Kear it high that men may see 

How the valiant honor valor- 
How the brave remember Lee. 



^ ORATION ^ 

FOR THE UNVEILING OF THE ROBERT E. LEE MONUMENT, 

- BY — 

HON, CHAS, E. FENNER. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 

If I appear before you in the double capacity of President of 
tlie E. E. Lee Monumental Association and of orator of the day, 
it is not of my seeking, but in obedience to the unanimous wOl 
of my brother officers and directors, who have imposed on me 
the task of commemorating the character, the deeds and the 
cause of Lee, in words, as this monumental tribute was designed 
to commemorate them in perennial bronze and stone. 

It is now nearly two years since this summons came to me ; 
and during that 'time, at such intervals as a somewhat busy life 
aiforded, 1 have devoted myself to the study of the memorial 
records of Lee, with growing wonder at the purity of his life, the 
moral grandeur of his character and the splendor of his achieve- 
ments. 

Amazed at the glowing picture, and little disposed to believe 
in human ijerfection, I have, with the eye of the critic, sought to 
discover whether eulogy had not distorted truth, and whether, 
after all, this man was not too great to be so good, or too good to 
be so great as he is painted. 

Unless it was my honest and considerate belief I would not 
insult the divine modesty of the spirit of Lee by proclaiming as 
I do that he was "the cuniiing'st pattern of excelling nature" 
that was ever wanned by the "Promethean heat." For surely 
never revealed itself to the human mind a more deligiitful sub- 
ject for contemplation than the life and character of Lee. 
^The phenomenal elevation of his soul was developed by every 
fertilizing influence that could tend to stimulate and strengthen, 



6 ORATION. 

by the antecedents of his race, by tlie snrronndings of his life, 
by the lofty character of his edncation and profession. 

The blood which coursed in his veins descended in purest 
strain through an illustrious ancestry running back to William 
the Conqueror, every record of which indicates a race of heredi- 
tary gentlemen. That the blood of Launcelot Lee, who landed 
with the Conqueror, and of Lionel, who fought with Coeur de 
Lion, had not dengenerated, as it percolated through the cen- 
turies, is evidenced by the history of the American Lees, whose 
founder was Eichard Lee, a cavalier of Charles the First, who 
removed to the Xew World, and is described by Bishop Meade 
as '^a man of good stature, comely visage, enterprising genius, 
sound head, vigorous spirit and most generous nature." From 
his stock sprung a host of illustrious Virginians, the most con- 
spicuous of whom were that Eichard Henry Lee, who, in the 
Congress of the Colonies, moved the resolution adopting the 
Declaration of Independence, and proclaiming tliat the American 
colonies ''are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent ;" 
and the father of our hero. Light Horse Harry Lee, the Eupert 
of the Eevolutiou, the friend of Washington, elected by Congress 
to deliver the eulogy of that illustriouvS man at his death, and 
who conferred upon him the memorable title of "first in war, 
first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." 

Born in the same county with AVashington, and thus bound to 
his memory by the ties of hereditary friendship, fate seems to 
have determined that this illustrious exemplar should "rain influ- 
ence" upon Lee from every source. It gave him to wife Mary 
Eandolph Custis, daugther of the adopted son of Washington, 
the nearest representative of his house, and a woman whose ex- 
alted virtues were derived by lineal inheritance from the wife of 
Washington. This marriage transferred his residence to beautiful 
Arlington, the repository of the Washington relics, where he 
lived surrounded by objtects so freighted with the dearest memo- 
ries and associations of the liero's life, that the very atmosphere 
of the place seemed instinct with the brooding influence of his 
spirit. 

From his very infancy Lee seems to have been enamored of 
virtue. In writing of him at an early age his father says : "Eob- 
ert, who was always good, will be confirmed in his happy turn of 
mind by his ever watehfnl and affectionate mother." 



ORATION. 7 

Tliat mother was an invalid, and so tender and dntiful was he 
in his attentions to her, even during his rough boyhood, that 
when he left her to go to West Point she exclaimed : " How can 
I live without Robert ! He is both son and danghter tome." 

And here we catch the earliest glimpse of that epicene nature, 
the highest type of humanity, combining feminine gentleness 
and modesty, quick sympathy and capacity for self-abnegation, 
with masculine strength, energy and inflexible purpose — a com- 
bination which, in its highest form, makes man, indeed, "the 
beauty of the world, the paragon of animals ! " 

Free from perilous precocity, his boyhood and early youth gave 
ample evidence of that vigorous and symmetrical intellectual or- 
ganization, which, at every stage of his career, rose to the level of 
the highest tasks imposed upon it, solved all the problems of life, 
whether great or small, as they presented themselves, with infal- 
lible judgment, lifted him to the summit of the profession of his 
choice, and, by the evenness, roundness and fullness of its devel- 
opment, left no doubt that, in any other sphere of human activity, 
it would have enabled him to achieve equal eminence. 

Bountiful nature had endowed him with exceptional gifts of 
physical beauty. The eye of the South Carolina poet, Hayne, 
once rested upon him in the first year of the war, when he was 
already on the hither verge of middle age, as he stood in the 
fortifications of Charleston, surrounded by officers, and he has left 
the following pen picture of him : "In the middle of the group, 
topping the tallest by half a head, was, perhaps, the most striking 
figure we had ever encountered, the figure of a man seemingly 
about fifty-six or fifty-eight years of age, erect as a poplar, yet 
lithe and graceful, with broad shoulders well thrown back, a 
fine, justly proportioned head posed in unconscious dignity, 
clear, deep, thoughtful eyes, and the quiet, dauntless step of one 
every inch the gentleman and soldier. Had some old English 
Cathedral crypt or monumental stone in Westminster Abbey 
been smitten by a magician's wand and made to yield up its 
knightly tenant restored to his manly vigor, with chivalric soul 
beaming from every feature, some grand old Crusader or Eed 
Cross warrior, who, believing in a sacred creed and espousing a 
glorious principle, looked upon mere life as nothing in the com- 
parison, we thought that thus would he have appeared, unchanged 
in aught but costume and surroundings. And this superb 



8 



ORATION. 



soldier, the glamour of the antique days about him, was Robt. 
E. Lee." 

If such was the Lee of fifty-six years, what must have been the 
splendid beauty of his youth ? The priceless jewel of his soul 
found fit setting in this grand physique, marked by a majestic 
bearing and easy grace and courtesy of gesture and movement, 
sprung from perfect harmony and symmetry of limb and muscle, 
instinct with that vigorous health, the product of a sound mind 
in a sound body. 

Such was the magnificent youth who graduated from West 
Point with the honors of his class, and dedicated himself to the 
service of his country. It was easy to see that "Fate reserved 
him for a bright manhood." Xot his the task, by the eccentric 
flight of a soaring ambition, to "pluck blight Ilonor from the 
pale-faced moon," or with desperate greed, to "dive into the bot- 
tom of the deep and drag up drowned Honor by the locks." This 
great engineer laid out the road of his life along the undeviating 
line of ])uty, prepared to bridge seas and scale mountains ', to 
defy foes and to scorn temptations ; to struggle, to fight, to die, 
if need be, but never to swerve from his choseu it^th. Honor 
and Fame were not captives in his train. Free and bounteous, 
they ambuscaded his way and crowned him as he passed. 

Needless to dwell upon the incidents of his life from his grad- 
uatiou to the Mexican war. Tliis period of his early manhood 
was passed in the study of his profession ; in the cultivation of 
his mind; in the exercise of every virtue; in the enjoyment of 
domestic life ; in the rearing of children who, in the fullness of 
time, were destined to repay his care by lives not unworthy of 
the paternal example. 

At the Oldening of tlu^. Mexican war he was, jjcrhaps, as per- 
fectly equipped in the science of soldiership as any living man. 
Although but a captain of engineers and debarred from rapid 
l)romotion by the rules of the regular service, he achieved a dis- 
tinction, if not so noisy, deeper than Avas gained by any subordi- 
nate in that war. No name figured so conspicuously in the 
reports of the general commanding for brilliant and important 
services. At its end, while the nudtitude was sounding the 
noisier fame of others, the judicious few, who weie familiar with 
the interior of the camjiaigns, aAvarded the palm t)f soldiership 
to the modest oflicer of engineers, and already fixed on him as 



ORATION. 9 

tlie coming' captain o± America. Tlie man most competent ot 
all to jndge, tlie hero of Lundy's Lane himself, did n.ot hesitate 
to dec'lare that "Lee was the greatest living soldier of America," 
and that "if a great battle was to be fought for tlie liberty or 
slavery of America, and I were asked my judgment as to the 
ability of a commander, I would say with my dying breath, 'Let 
it be Eobert E. Lee.' " 

One of the name of Lee has defined hai)piuess in the following 
homely but thoughtful words : "Peace of mind based on piety to 
Almighty God; unconscious innoceiice of conduct, with good 
will to man ; health of body, health of mind and prosperity in 
onr vocation ; a sweet, affectionate wife ; children devoted to 
truth, honor, right and utility, with love and respect to their 
parents; and faitliful, warm-hearted friends, in a country jjoliti- 
cally and religiously free — this is my definition of happiness." 

I know not where a better can be found; and if ever man enjoyed 
these blessings in bountiful measure, supplemented by ji wealth 
of golden opinion in the minds of all his countrymen, it was 
Eobert E. Lee, as the current of his life flowed peacefully through 
the years preceding tlie great civil war. Nothing disturbed the 
placidity of its course save the shadows, rapidly lengthening and 
thickening, cast by the dread events which were coming with the 
impending future. 

Lee lo\ed the ITujoii. It was emjjluitically tlie Union of 
his fathers, M'hose cunning hands had wrought in its con- 
struction. Jt was the Union of Wasliington, the idol of his 
worship. It was his own Union for which he had fouglit, and 
in whose service the "dearest action" of his life had been spent. 
The tenor of his way had removed him from the growing exacer- 
bation of i)()]itical strife. The l)itterness of sectional hate had 
not entered liis soul, lie loved the whole Union. To his acute 
prevision, its threatened disruption meant chaos and inevitable, 
desi)erate Avar. He opposed secession. He lilted his voice 
against it in words of solemn warning and protestation. 

In vain ! AVho can lift his hand against fate, and, with feeble 
gesture, stay or divert its course '? The inevitable swept on re- 
sistless, remorseless. Sna])ped, in quick succession, the cords 
which bound State after State to the Union ; and, at last,' with 
mighty effort, Virginia tore asunder the "hoops of steel " which 
encircled her, and, standing in the solitude of her original 



10 ORATION. 

sovereignty, with imperial voice, in her honr of peril, summoned 
all her children to her side. Lee she called by name, singled 
him out as chiefest of her sons, lier Hector, the pillar of her 
house. Stern mother, as she was, she held out to him the baton 
of her armies and bade him take it and prote(!t her honor, or die 
in its defense. 

The crisis of his life had come. His known love for the Union, 
his avowed opposition to secession, his devoted attachment to 
the venerable Commander-in-Chief of the Federal army, his edu- 
cation at West Point, his life spent in the Federal service — all 
kindled hopes in the supjiorters of the Union that his services 
would not be wanting to their cause, and he was semiofficially 
advised that the chief command in the tield of the Federal forces 
then being organized was subject to his acceptance. 

Eloquent lips have pictured the struggle which it cost Lee to 
resist this glittering- temptation. And, indeed, viewed from the 
standpoint of mere personal interest and professional ambition, 
the alternative presented was "all the world to nothing." But 
my study of his character forbids me to believe that such con- 
siderations ever assumed the dignity of a temptation -to him. 
Amongst the records of his written or spoken thcmghts I find no 
evidence of even a nuunent's hesitation in his choice. Duty, the 
guide and guardian of his life, never spoke to Lee in doubtful 
accents. Its voice Mas ever as clear as the trumpet's note, and 
by him was never heard but t(j be instantly obeyed. 

With gracious mien, he put aside all contrary solicitations, 
surrendered to the Union the unstained SMord which he had 
worn so worthily, and parting from the friends and associations 
of his youth and manhood in sorrow, but not at all in anger, 
bent his steps to his mother, Virginia, and kneeling reverently 
at her feet, received from her hand the chieftain's SAvord, and 
there kissing its hilt, swore eternal fealty to her cause. 

For this act he has been denounced as a deserter from his flag, 
and a traitor to his country. For this act he went down to his 
grave a disfranchised citizen of a restored Union. For a, like act 
there yet rests the stigma of disfranchisement upon a single num 
out of millions, the chivalric chieftain of the lost cause. 

[To Mr. Davis. Venerable man ! while the smirking littlenes- 
ses of official life deny you the bauble of an unsought amnesty, 
that providence which, in the end, surely guides aright the uiti- 



ORATION. 11 

mate judgments of mankind, is eloquent in your behalf to tlie 
awakening conscience of the American people. Malice and 
slander have exhausted their power against you. We congra- 
tulate you that the kindling splendors of that fame which will 
light up the centuries, already illumine the declining years of a 
life which has illustrated the hist(ny of two nations by valor in 
battle, wisdom in council, eloquence in debate, temperance in 
triumph and inexpugnable fortitude in adversity. O, pater 
patruc! living as it were "in an inverted order," and mourning, 
sternly and inconsolably, over the dead country, ftalve et vale !] 

If these charges against Lee are true, the urgent question 
presents itself : What do we here to-day; erecting a monument 
to a deserter or a traitor ? 

To magnify the deeds of our heroes, without, at the same time, 
vindicating the cause for which they were done, would be to 
ignore that which gives to those deeds their highest merit and 
grace and beauty. Mere brute courage and even the highest 
military skill are not, of themselves, fit subjects for commemora- 
tion in monumental brass. A pirate captain has often fought in 
defense of his black Hag with as deperate bravery and as con- 
summate art as [Helson at Trafalgar or Lawrence on the decks of 
the Constitution. A bandit chief miglit display as much devo- 
tion, skill and courage in defending some mountain pass, the key 
to the lair of his band, as were exhibited by Leonidas at Ther- 
mopyhie. But we do not build monuments to these. 

We cannot afford to sink our heroes to the level of mere prize 
fighters, who deluged a continent in blood witliout just right or 
lawful cause. 

Remembering that we are here, as Americans, to do honor to 
one of the greatest of Americans ; gratefully acknowledging the 
presence of many of those who fought against Lee, and who 
have chivalrously accepted our invitation to participate in these 
ceremonies ; I have anxiously asked myself whether I might, 
without just censure, undertalve to speak in defense of the cause 
of Lee. 

Two decades have passed since the Confederate flag w^as folded 
to its eternal rest. The Union is restored. The wounds of in- 
ternecine strife are healed. An affluent tide of patriotism, 
welling from the hearts of a reunited people, rolls, with resist- 
less ebb and flow, through the length and breadth of a common 



12 ORATION. 

country, and breaks, with equal volume, upon the Southern, as 
ui)on the ISTorthern confines of the Eepublic. All men agree that 
we live to-day under a Constitution, the meaning- and effect of 
which have, in certain particulars, been as delinitely settled in a 
sense opposed to that contended for by the Southern States in 
the recent conflict, as if it had been, in those respects, expressly 
amended. Tliis has l)een effected by the inveterate res adjudieata 
of war, from which there is no appeal and no desire to appeal. 
We, the i)eople of the South, have renewed our unreserved al- 
legiance to the Constitutiou as tlius authoritatively construed. 
By the bloody (Ji^sarian, operntion of the war, the right of seces- 
sion has, indisputably, been eviscerated from the fundamental 
law. 

Blistered be the slanderous tongue, and cankered the coward 
heart, which would pervert what I am about to say, into an at- 
temj^t to revive dead issues or reopen settled controversies. 

The constitutional dispute between the States as to the right 
of secession is, to-day, as purely a historical question as the 
questions between the colonies and Great Britain about the right- 
fulness of the stamp act and of taxation without representation. 
As such I feel myself charged with the solemn duty of discussing 
it, to the eiul that 1 may aid in distributing and perpetuating for 
the benefit of this and coming generations, a knowledge of the 
grave and sul)stantial grounds u])on which their forefathers be- 
lieved, when they " stood i' the imminent, deadly breach," in de- 
fense of the States, of wliich they were citizens, that they were 
acting in their right, in obedience to lawful authority, ami in 
violation of no riglitful allegiance due by them to any earthly 
power. 

Standing by the grave of this dead and buried right of seces- 
sion, we inscribe upon its tomb the solemn '■'•requieseat in pace,^' 
we admit that the sepulchre wherein it is "inurned" may never 
"ope his ponderous and marble jaws to cast it up again ;" but 
fanaticism itself cannot deny us the privilege of asserting that it 
once " lived and moved and had its being," sprung from the 
womb of the Constitution, begotten of the loins of the Fathers, 
in its day a leader of hosts as true and valiant as ever struck for 
the "altars of their country and the temples of their gods." 

Follow me, therefore, oh fellow-citizens of a reunited country, 
whether from the North or from the South, while, with reverent 



ORATION. 13 

lioart, in tin- spirit of impartial liistory, and in necessary vindica- 
tion of tlie cause for wiii(;li lie fought in whose memory this mon- 
ument is erected, I seek to trace the origin, the foundation and tlie 
history of the right of secession, bearing ever in mind that I speak 
not from the standpoint of to-day, but of that eventful moment in 
the already distant past when Lee was called ui)on to determine, 
by the lights then surrounding him, whether Ids allegiance was 
due to his iiative State or to the Federal Government, from which 
she had withdrawn. 

Down to the days of Hobbes, of Malmesbury, kingship 
founded its claim to authority on Divine right. Tlobbes origina- 
ted the doctrine that political authority was derived from the 
consent of the governed, and based that consent upon the fiction 
of an "origiujjl contract" or imjdied covenant, wliich created 
''that great Leviathan called the commonwealth of State." 

The right of secession, even in the form of revolution, had no 
place, however, in the theory of Hobbes, because he held that 
this "original contract" was irrevocable, and thus laid for des- 
potism a firmer foundation than that which he had destroyed. 

Locke made a prodigious advance. Adopting Hobbes' theory 
that politicid authority was derived from the consent of the 
governed, he repudiated the doctrine of irrevocability, and held 
that the power of rulers was merely delegated, and that the 
people, or the governed, had the right to withdraw it when used 
for purposes inconsistent with the common weal, the end which 
society and government were formed to promote. By thus 
recognizing the responsibility of rulers to their subjects for the 
due execution of their trusts and the right of resistance by the 
people in case of abuse thereof, he established tlie sacred right 
of revolution, in the assertion of which the people of England 
expelled the Stuarts from the throne, iuid the American colonies 
established their independence. 

On emerging from a. revolution in which their rights of self- 
government had been so strenuously denied, in which they had 
endured such suft'erings and perils and had so narrowly escaijed 
from complete subjugation, it might naturally be expected that 
in thereafter establishing a general government among them- 
selves, the colonies would have been careful in guarding the 
nature and terms of their consent thereto and in leaving open a 
safe and peaceful mode of retiring therefrom, whenever, in their 



14 ORATION. 

judgment, it should endanger their rights or cease to promote 
their welfare. Their experience had taught them the danger, 
difficulty and possible inadequacy of the mere right of revo- 
lution. 

Accordingly, we find that hi the Federal Governments, which 
they instituted, both in the articles of confederation and in the 
constitution of 17<S9, they assiduously guarded and restricted the 
consent upon which alone the authority of these governments 
rested, and, "to make assurance double sure," distinctly pro- 
vided that all powers, not expressly delegated, were reserved to 
the States. 

The question of the right of secession had its birth iniov to 
the formation of the present Constitution of the United States. 
It arose under the prior articles of confederation. Those ar- 
ticles, let it never be forgotten, contained an express provision 
that the Union of the States created thereby should be "per- 
petual." In view of this clause, it was vehemently contended 
that, without the consent of all, no ])ortion of the States had the 
right to withdraw from a Union which all of them had solemnly 
covenanted with each other should last forever. 

These objections were overborne by the Convention of 1787, 
and the Constitution of the United States had its origin in the 
assertion of the right of the States to secede from the confedera- 
tion previously existing ; for the going into eftect of that consti- 
tution was, by its terms, made to depend, not upon the assent of 
all the States, but upon the assent of nine only, each one of them 
acting separately and independently. 

Did not this action concede that the right to withdraw from a 
Federal Union was a right that inhered in the States prior to the 
establishment of the present Constitution ! And if in the latter 
instrument we can find no surrender of that right, how can it be 
denied that it was reserved to the States ? 

!N'ay, more ; how does it happen that the clause in the articles 
of confederation, which had declared the Union thereby 
formed to be "i)erpetual," and which had been the foundation of 
the arguments against the right of secession therefrom, Avas omit- 
ted from the Constitution ? 

"Can sucl) tlilugs be, 
And overcome us like a summer's cloud, 
Witliout our special wonder?" 



ORATION. 15 

We miglit pause here, aud ask, in all candor, wlietlier, if the 
Southern States erred in believing and asserting the right of 
secession, the fault does not rest on the shoulders of those who 
framed the Constitution T 

Unless there is something in the essential nature of the govern- 
ment established by the Constitution, or in the character of the 
parties who established it, or in the nature and mode of tlie con- 
sent uj)on which it rests, which is inconsistent with tlie right of 
secession in the States, it is difficult to conceive how such right 
could be disputed. 

The doctrine that the Constitution was a compact, voluntarily 
entered into between sovereign and independent States, purely 
federal in its character, and diifering from the former articles of 
confederation, not ;is to the nature of the consent uj^ou which it 
was founded nor as to the character of the parties thereto, but 
only as to the kind and extent of the powers granted to the gen- 
eral government and the mode of their execution, may be said to 
have passed substantially unchallenged for considerably more 
than a quarter of a century after its adoption. Tliat doctrine 
blazes forth in every stej) taken in the foriuation and adoption of 
the Constitution ; in Mr. Madison's resolution adopted by the 
Virginia Legislature appointing commissioners to meet such com- 
missioners as may be api)ointed by the other States, to take into 
consideration trade and commercial regulations ; in the address 
of the convention of those commissioners, subsequently held at 
Annapolis, which recommended a "general meeting of the States, 
in a future convention," with powers extending "to other objects 
than those of commerce ;" in the consequent commissioning of 
delegates by the several States to the convention of 1787, with 
instructions to join "in devising and discussing all such altera- 
tions and further provisions as may be necessary to render the 
Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of the Union f 
in the organization of that convention, umler which every State, 
large or small, had an equal and independent unit vote; in the 
submission of the instrument for ratiiication to a convention of 
the people of each separate State, w^hich, thus itcting indepen- 
dently and alone, gave its own consent to the proposed compact; 
in the letter of the convention recommending its ratification, 
which expressly described the government proposed therein as 
"the Federal government of these States;" and linally,in the mode 



16 ORATION. 

of promulgation directed, wliicli provided that ''as soon as tlie 
conventions of nine States sliall have ratified this Constitution," 
a day sliould be fixed on wliicli "electors should be appointed by 
the several States which shall have ratified the same." 

The same doctrine likewise appears in the ordinances of ratifi- 
cation of several of the States, in the debates of the convention 
itself and in those of the various State conventions — denied only 
by the opponents of the Constitution, always affirmed by its 
friends. 

It is repeatedly and explicitly proclaimed in the Federalist. It 
appears in the writings and utterances of all the fathers of the 
Constitution, of Hamilton as well as of Madison, of Washing- 
ton, Franlvliu, Gerry, Wilson, Morris, of those who favored as 
well as those who feared a strong government. It is emphati- 
cally announced not only in the extreme Kentucky resolutions, 
but in the famous Virginia resolutions of 1798, the first from the 
pen of Jefferson, the last from that of Madison, the latter of 
which declared that they viewed " the powers of the Federal 
Government as resulting from the compact to which the States 
were parties." These resolutions formed thereafter the corner 
stone of the great States Rights party, which repeatedly swept 
the country and which elected Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and 
Jackson to the Presidency. 

Even the Supreme Court of the United States had declared 
that the Constitution was a compact to which the States were 
parties. 

The first purely juridical work on the Constitution was pub- 
lished in 1825 by William Rawle, an eminent jurist of Phila- 
delphia, who, writing as a jurist and not as a politician, did not 
hesitate to declare that " the Uniim was an association of Re- 
publics," that the Constitution was a compact between the States; 
that "it depends on the State itself whether it continues a mem- 
ber of the Union," that " the States may withdraw from the 
Union, and that "the secession of a State from tlie Union de- 
pends on the will of the people." 

At a later period, De Tocqueville, who in his great work on 
Democracy in America, brought to the study of our institutions 
a patient and impartial spirit, reached the same conclusions, and 
declared that " the Union was formed by the voluntary agree- 
ment of the States, and, in uniting together, they have not for- 



ORATION. 17 

felted their nationality. * * If one of the States choose to 
withdraw from the comi>a(;t, it would be difiQcult to disprove its 
right of doing so." 

I must halt here in the enumeration of the plain historical 
facts and overwhelming authorities upon which rested the great 
doctrine that the Constitution of the United States was purely a 
federal compact between sovereign and indeijendeut States, de- 
riving its force and authority from the free and individual con- 
sent of the several States in their separate political capacities. 
In these essential respects it did not differ from the articles of 
confederation, but only, as before stated, in the extent and mode 
of execution of the powers granted to the general government. 

The entire argument against the right of secession rested on a 
denial of this doctrine. 

That denial was never made by any respectable authority until, 
during the nullification and agitation of 1831-3, Webster and 
Story stepped into the lists as champions of an indisso- 
luble Union. 

These were great men and great lawyers. They saw, and in- 
deed a reference to their works will show, that they admitted 
that, if the doctrine above stated were correct, the right of se- 
cession could not be successfully disputed. 

They therefore took bold ground against it. They denied that 
the Constitution was a comx^act at all. They denied that, even 
if a compact, it was one to which the States were the parties. 
Thej" asserted that the government created thereby was a ISTa- 
tional, and not a Federal Government. They asserted that the 
Constitution was ordained and established by the consent, not of 
the States, but of '^the whole people of the United States in the 
aggregate," and could only be uudone by like consent. 

In view of the historical record which I have faintly sketched, 
and which might have been indefinitely extended, the mind is 
stui)efled at the utter impotence of human language as a vehicle 
of thought, when it encounters such opposite interpretations of a 
written instrument, and discovers that after the lapse of forty 
years, time sufficient to have consigned to their tombs nearly 
every one of those who had aided in its confection, a construction 
should be advanced diametrically oj)posed to what they had 
declared, in every form, to be their veritable meaning'. 

Of course, it would not be possible for me, within the limits of 



18 OEATIO^'. 

this address, to state all the arguiuents advanced by Webster 
and Story, in support of their theory, or the answers made to 
them ; but one or two of the most salient deserve attention. 

To show that the government was National and not Federal, 
they seized upon the first resolution adojJted by the convention, 
which declared that a "National Government ought to be estab- 
lished, consisting of a supreme legislative, executive and judi- 
ciary. " This resolution was proposed before the convention was 
full; and how shall we restrain our wonder at the reliance placed 
upon it, when, in the record of the further x)roceediugs of the 
convention, we learn that, upon motion of Ellsworth, of Connec- 
ticut, and upon his expressed objection to the term "National, " 
the resolution was altered, nem. con., so as to read that " the 
Government of the United States ought to consist, " etc. Thus 
the convention expressly repudiated the term " National Gov- 
ernment," and substituted therefor words expressive of the Fed- 
eral character of the government; and, indeed, as already shown, 
in the letter recommending the ratification of the Constitution, 
the convention expressly described it as the " Federal Govern- 
ment of these States. " 

/The grand cheval de hattaille of their argument, however, was 
the preamble of the Constitution itself, which declares that "We, 
the j)eople of the United States. ******* ordain 
and establish this Constitution for the United States of 
America." 

There is no doubt that these words, more than all other con- 
siderations combined, have lent force to the argument of those 
who supported the National theory of the goverimient; and 
had the plain explanation of their use which has since been 
given, been advanced at the time when the question arose, it is 
doubtful if that theory would ever have attained the acceptation 
which it received. 

What is that exxjlanation, so ax)parent and conclusive, and 
yet, so far as I am aware, first advanced, after the war, by that 
great publicist, Albert Taylor Bledsoe ? It is this : The original 
draft of the Constitution, instead of using in its preamble the 
words "We, the peoi)le of the United States," used the words 
"We, the people of the States of Virginia, Massachusetts, etc.," 
specifying each State by name as parties to the compact. So 
matters stood until the language of the Constitution was submit- 



ORATION. 19 

ted to the revision of a "(M)iniiiittee on style." Tliat coiuniittee 
discovered that under the provisions rehitive to the nH)de of rati- 
fication Avliich directed that the accession of any nine States 
shonld carry the Constitution into effect, tiie naming- of all or any 
of the States in the i)reanil)le was impracticable, because it might 
well be that all the States would not ratify, and it would be im- 
possible to state in advance which nine of them Avould do so. 
How then were they to be named ? It thus became absolutely 
necessary to strike out the enumeration of the States, and to 
substitute some general phrase which should embrace those 
States which should ratify and exclude those which should reject 
the Constitution. Such a i)hrase was discovered in the words, 
"the people of the United States," by which the convention 
surely did not intend to alter the entire nature of the instrument, 
but only meant the respective ])eoi)les of the several States, not 
named only because unknown, which should thereafter become 
parties, and, by consenting to the proposed Union, become 
thereby United States. Gouverneur Morris, of Pennsylvania, 
was chairman of the committee on style which rei)orted this al- 
teration in the preamble, and he informs us in one of his letters, 
that the Constitution, in its final shape, was "written by the fin- 
gers w^hich write this letter." He, therefore, wrote the words, 
"We, the people of the United States," in the preamble, and 
should have known better than any other what was their true 
import. He was one of the most pronounced advocates of a 
strong government. The record shows that he had actually 
moved the reference of the Constitution for ratification to "one 
general convention chosen and authorized by the people, to con- 
sider, to amend and establish the same," but that his motion had 
not even received a second. What becomes, then, of the argu- 
ment based on this expression of the i^reamble, when we find 
that Gouverneur Morris, its author, with his well known desire 
to establish a j!^ational government, himself declares in his writ- 
ings, that "the Consitution was a compact, not between individu- 
als, but between political societies, the people, not of America, 
but of the United States, each (State) enjoying sovereign power, 
and, of course, equal rights." 

Time and the occasion admonish me that I must arrest here 
the discussion of this interesting historical question. I have, of 
course, barely indicated the faint outlines of the grand argument 



20 ORATION. 

sustaining the right of secession. Those who desire to go deei)- 
er may consult those great storehouses of facts and principles, 
the works of Calhoun, Bledsoe, Stephens, Sage, and our iiiiniortal 
leader, Jefferson Davis. 

It is not for 7ne dogmatically to proclaim that we were right 
and that the supporters of the Union were wrong. I shall have 
accomplished a duty, and shall, as T believe, have rendered a 
service to the whole Union, if what I have said shall contribute 
to confirm the Southern peoi)le in the veneration and respect 
justly due to the cause for which their fathers fought, and, at the 
same time, to moderate the vehemence with which many of the 
Northern people have denounced that cause as mere wicked and 
unreasoniug treason. The war may have established that the 
Constitution no longer binds the States by a mere love tie, but 
by a Gordian knot, which only the sword can sever ; yet all 
patriots will admit that the safest guarantee of its permanence 
must lie in the mutual respect and forbearance from insult of all 
sections of the peojjle toward each other. 

Far be it from me to impugn the motives of those who ad- 
vocated and enforced the indissolubility of the Union. 

tn union the States had achieved their independence. In 
union, at a later time, during the infancy of the Republic, they 
had defied again the power of the mightiest nation of the earth, 
and had vindicated their capacity to protect and defend the 
rights which they had so dearly won. In union they had sub- 
dued the savage, leveled primeval forests, subjected vast wilder- 
nesses to the sway of peaceful populations and happy hus- 
bandry, borne the ensign of the Republic to the capital of a 
foreign foe, extended their frontiers till they embraced a 
continent and swelled their population to a strength which 
might defy the world in arms. In union the sails of their com- 
merce whitened every sea, wealth poured in affluent streams into 
their laps, education flourished, science and art took root and 
grew apace, and those ancient foes, religion and toleration, lib- 
erty and law, public order and individual freedom, locked hands 
and worked together to magnify and glorify the grandest, hap- 
piest and freest people that ever flourished ''in the tides of time." 

The contemplation of this exhilarating spectacle naturally 
tightened the bands of the Union and inflamed the minds of the 



ORATION. 21 

pooi)le with a deep patriotism, whicli tended more and more to 
centre round the Federal Government. 

Wlien, in 18,3;3, Avliile the glorious panorama I have just 
sketched was still being unrolled, upon a comparatively trilling 
occasion, behind the absurd spectre of Nullification appeared the 
gigantic figure of the Eight of Sescession, panoplied though it 
was from head to foot in the armor of the Constitution, it struck 
terror to the souls of the lovers of the Union, and shook even 
the firm poise of the aged Madison. It threatened at a touch and 
upon inadequate cause to crumble into ruin the grand fabric 
which had been builded with such pain and had risen to such 
majestic height. 

It conjured up before the quick inmgination of Mr. Webster 
that terrible vision of a Union quenched in blood, of " States 
discordant, dissevered, belligerent," of strength frittered away 
by division, of liberty imperilled by the conflicts of her de- 
votee's, of the high hopes of hnmanity blasted by the ambi- 
tions, dissensions and conflicting interests of jarring sovereign- 
ties. 

In my humble judgment Mr. Webster's was the grand- 
est civic intellect that America has produced. The most prodi- 
gious achievement of his eloquence and genius was the success 
with which 'he darkened and, to the minds of many, actually 
ol)literated the clear historical record which I have heretofore 
exhibited, confuted the very authors of the Constitution as to 
the meaning and effect of their own language, and may be said 
substantially to have created and imposed upon the American 
people a new and ditterent Constitution from that under which 
they had lived for so considerable a period. 

Yet we must forgive nuu'h to the motives and inspirations upon 
which he acted. 

Ah, well had it been if all the followers of Mr. Webster had 
been inspired by his own deep respect for the guaranties and 
limitations of the Constitution. 

Time and inclination alike restrain me from any i)articular 
notice of the direct causes which provoked the actual assertion 
of the right of secession. 

Suftice it to say that events occurred and conflicts arose which 
rendered imi)ossible the continuance of a voluntary union. The 
predestined strife was not to be averted, rassion usnri)ed the 



22 ORATION. 

seat of reusoii. Disseiisiou swelled into defiance, chiding grew 
into fierce recrimination, constant qnarrel ripened into liate. In 
vain <Iid tliose who clnng to the Constitution seek "npon the 
heat and flame of this distemper to sprinkle cool patience." 
Fourteen Northern States, in their so-termed " personal liberty 
bills," openly nullified the Constitution in that very clause which 
had been the condition sine qua non, upon which the SoutherTi 
States had acceded to the compact. A sectional party was 
formed upon a basis known and designed to exclude from its 
ranks the entire people of fifteen Staffs. An election delivered 
the control of the Federal government into the hands of this 
party. 

Perhaps these and all other causes might have not been suffi- 
cient to justify a resort to revolution. Perhaps allegiance due 
might have borne the strain of greater wrongs than any with 
which \\Q were opi)ressed or threatened. 

But a broken bargain, civic strife, the triumph of a sectional 
party whose electoral majority left no hope that it could be over- 
come, surely justified the minority of States in ])eacefully with- 
drawing from the Union, which they believed, upon the solid 
grounds which I have stated, to have been created and to exist, 
as to them, only by virtue of their original and continued con- 
sent. 

Although Lee, with thousands of other Southern men, be- 
lieved the justification to be insufficient, and opposed secession, 
this fact, while rendering his duty mor<' diflicult, did not leave 
it less clear, under his theory of the government, to yield his al- 
legiance to his native State. 

And here I leave the cause of Lee to be judged at the bar of 
impartial history. 

That [cause ijreseuts this singular claim to the considerate 
judgment of its adversaries, that we, who fought for it, liave 
done and will do what in us lies to gild their triumph by making 
the restored Union so prolific in benefits to all coming genera- 
tions that our ])osterity, while respecting the principles and con- 
victions for which we fought, may rejoice in our defeat. 

The Constitution yet lives, an imperishable monument to the 
wisdimi of those who framed it, cai)able, if preserved in its integ- 
rity, of accomplishing all their benefi(;ent purposes, and consecrat- 
ing forever the co-ordinated rights of individual liberty, local 



ORATION. 23 

self-ffovornineiit and iiuion for "the coiiimou defense and general 
welfare." 

Turn we now to the eampaigns of our hero. Lee's eanipaigns 
were the poetry of soldiershi[), so grand and simple in their con- 
ception, so masterly in their execution, so daring" in their at- 
tempts, so astounding in their results, that the simplest intelli- 
gence may com^jrcliend and tlie dullest admire them. 

They are not to be regarded as made up of merely detached 
and independent marches and battles springing from the hapha- 
zard order of events, but are, from first to last, the development 
of a uniform and consistent plan of operations, based on the pro- 
foundest science of strategy, and having in view the accomplish- 
ment of a specific purpose. That purpose may be announced at 
once to have been the defense of Ilichmond. lvichnu)nd was not 
merely important as being the capital of the ConflHleracy, but 
also as being the grand centre of depots, arsenals and military 
manufactures necessary to the supi>ort of an army operating 
nortli of it, and as the only point having railroad connections 
with tlie South sufficient for transi)ortatiou of necessary supplies. 

The position of the Federal capital on tlie banks of the Poto- 
mac, and the exposure of the Southern border of the United 
States along the line of Maryland and Pennsylvania, made it of 
transcendent imi)ortance tliat the country intervening between 
Eichmond and Washington should be made and kept, as far as 
possible, the theatre of the war. The retirement of the Con- 
federate forces from Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, thus 
practically relieving the Southern border of the United States 
from menace in that direction, had removed a great source of 
alarm to them, and had liberated for operations at other points 
tlie vast forces which would have been required for the defense 
of that line. Had we been forced to retire from Virginia also, 
besides the immense moral and material loss, the removal of the 
seat of war entirely away from the Northern capital and terri- 
tory, would have freed the large forces constantly engaged in 
their protection to concentrate around us in a narrowing circle 
of fire, eventuating inevitably in our ultimate destruction. The 
Conf(Hleracy fell with the forced evacuation of Eichmond. It is 
certain it could not long have survived its earlier voluntary 
abandonment. 

The task of defending Eichmond was, as I have said, the task 



24 ORATION. 

of Lee ; and it was the moist difficult one ever assigned to any 
soldier. The prime necessity was to avoid a siege. Once shut 
up in the fortifications of Richmond, the city was lost, for the 
difficulties of its defense would have been insuperable ; because 
it would have involved the protection of long lines of railroad, 
without which the army could not be sustained, and in view of 
the enormous forces which could liave been concentrated by the 
enemy, this would have been impossible. 

Yet conceive the difficulty of avoiding such a siege, when you 
reflect that bj' tlie undisputed i)OSsession of the James and York 
rivers, and with the aid of their powerful flotillas of transport 
ships and gunboats, the enemy was able, at any time, without the 
possibility of opposition by us, to land an army within a day's 
march of our cai)ital, and to support it there by deep water lines 
of supply, which we could neither d<\stroy nor interrupt. 

No invading army ever had such advantages as the Northern 
Army of the Potomac. The greatest difficulty of successful in- 
vasion, the protection' of its lines of communication with its base 
of supplies and re-inforcements, was practically eliminated from 
the problem; for not only were the water routes of the James 
and the York open almost to the gates of Richmond, Imt even 
when it finally moved from the direction of Culpeper Court House, 
its path lay across successive lines of commnnicatioii, so that, in 
the words of a philosophic commentator on the campaigns, "it 
abandoned one, only to find another and a safer at the end of 
every march." At Culpeper Court-House, the Orange and Al- 
exandria Railroad was its line. When it abandoned that, its 
halts at the Wilderness and Spottsylvania Court-House opened 
up a new line via Ac(]uia Creek. As it advanced to the Annas, 
the Rappahannock at Port Royal furnished another efficient 
water line. W^hen it reached the Pamunkey, the York riA-er and 
Chf^sapeake Bay gave it one still more efficient; and finally, 
when its last march brought it to the James, that great river 
formed a perfectly safe avenue to Washington. 

When these facts are considered, in connection w itli the enorm- 
ous disparity of numbers and resources now demonstrated be- 
yond the possibility of (juestion by the historical records of the 
two armies, Lee's successful defense of Richmond for three years 
must take its place in history as one of the grandest military 
achievements of ancient or of modern times. Had like success 



ORATION. 25 

atteiuled the Confederate operations iu other directions, the 
baclvbone of the war wonkl, undoubtedly, have been broken. As 
it was, the tremendous bh)ws of Lee so staggered his adversary 
that tlie issue hiy in doul)t to the very last, and at more than 
one period in the contest the Northern cause barely escaped col- 
lapse. 

Follow me now in a rapid sketch of the mere outline of the 
marvelous campaigns. 

After the indecisive battle of Seven Pines, and the unfortunate 
wounding of the tirst commander of the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia, that skillful soldier, Josei>li E. Johnston, his successor in 
command. Gen. G. ^Y. Smith, had retired the army to its encamp- 
ments near llichmond, and there it was when, on June 2, 1SG2, 
Lee assumed command. Its effective strength, using round luim- 
bers, (as I shall continue to do) was fifiy-Kix thoiis((nd men. 
Mc(Jlcllan, an able comnmnder, who, in the first year of the war, 
adopted that route to Kichmond, the return to which after many 
disasters, at last led to its ca|)ture, at that moment lay, pos- 
sibly within sight of the spires, certainly Avithin sound of the 
bells of the churches of Kichmond, with a ])resent effective force 
of one hundred and five thousand. McDowell, yvit\i forty thousand 
men, the flower of the Federal Army, was en route to reinforce 
McClellan, Mhile strong forces under Jlaidvs and Fremont were 
operating in the Valley. Jackson, with a force never exceeding 
sixteen thousand, was still engaged in that wonderful series of 
operations in the Valley which resulted in the successive defeats 
of Banks, Fremont and Shields, and in the utter paralysis of the 
moven)ent of 3IcDowell to reinforce McClellan. It was still evi- 
dent, however, that this paralysis was l)ut temi)orary, ami that 
with renewed concentration of the vast though shattered forces 
ot the enem.y, Jackson, with liis litth^ army reduced by forced 
marching and constant fighting, would have no alternative but 
to retire to the defenses of liichmond, which would be reduced 
to a state of siege by the combined and overwhebuihg Federal 
armies. 

Nothing less than the genius of Lee could have relieved 
such a situation. To await the tard}' attack of McClellan, while 
the movement for tlie annihilation or forced retreat of Jackson 
and the reinforcement by MclJowell was resumed, would be 
fatal. 



26 ORATION. 

With iidditioiial troops already received, and by calling Jack- 
son to liim, Lee wonld have a force of cif/lifi/ fhoiisdnd men with 
which to engage the one Jnindrcd and fire ihousaiid of ]McCleK 
Ian. While the latter General was clamoring for reinforcements 
and matnring his i)lans of assault, Lee determined to order Jack- 
son to his support, and with the bulk of his army to march rapidly 
out of bis lines, cross the Chickahominy, gain McClellan's right 
and there assault him on his flank. 

The brilliant audacity of this plan maybe appreciated when 
you remendier that in its execution he left but twenty-live thou- 
sand men between the army of McClellan and liichmond, and 
exx)osed his own rear without a man intervening between it and 
the large force of McDowell. 

Its profound strategic wisdom is demonstrated by the result 
of the glorious seven days' battle which followed, at the end of 
which we find the grand army of McClellan, its dream of tri- 
umphal entry into the Confederate capital vanished, cowering, 
shattered and demoralized, at Harrison's Landing, on the James, 
under the protection of the iiowerful gunboats, Avhich alone 
saved it from <lestruction. 

It is a cold, historic fact that after deducting losses of the bat- 
tles and stragglers, Lee with si.rfi/-firo thousand men pursued Mc- 
Clellan with ninety thoumnd to the banks of the James ; yet so 
had the handling of the Confederate force multiplied its num- 
bers in the imagination of McClellan, that his dispatches in- 
formed his Government that he had been overwhelmed by an 
enemy not less than two hundred thousand strong ! 

Eichmond was relieved and for the moment safe ; but the situ- 
ation was full of peril. 

The army of McClellan, resting in its impregnable position 
within a day's march of Eichmond, reorganized and strength- 
ene<l with reinforcements, would, if left undisturbed, soon be in 
position to resume oftensive operations. Meanwhile the Federal 
forces in the other direction had been jilaced under a new com- 
mander, Maj. Gen. John Pope, who, at the head of 43,000 men, 
was organizing a bold campaign to operate^ against Eichmond in 
connection with McClellan. 

Lee determined that the easiest way to remove McClellan from 
the James would be to threaten the inferior force of Pope, upon 
which the protection of Washington dei)ended. Accordingly, 



ORATION. 27 

he di,sx)atcl»ed Jackson with twelve thousand men in t\\Q. direction 
of GordonsviUe to threaten Pope. This left him with only 
Jiffij-cight thousand men to confront the ninety thousand of 
McClellan; bnt the latter General still remaining inactive, Lee, a 
week later, fnrther depleted his force by sendino- a. P. Hill's 
division to reinforce Jackson. Jackson, with his force of abont 
eighteen thousana men, did not hesitate to aftack Pope with 
thirty-seven thousand at hand, and more in easy reacli, and won the 
victory at Cedar Enn. This l>old feat had the effect of checking- 
all serions advance on tlu', part of l*ope, and of so alarming the 
Washington authorities for the safety of their capital, that they 
accomplished the very i)nrpose of Lee, by ordering the transfer 
of McClellan's army to the snpport of Pope. This enabled Lee 
to dispatch the rest of his own force in the same direction. Mc- 
Clellan's forces were being rapidly transported to Alexandria and 
moving to the sujjport of Pope. If sntfered to complete their 
jnnction the force of the enemy wonld be overwhelmingly snpe- 
rior. The only hope was to annihilate Pope before the whole of 
McClellan's force could reach him. To accomplish this, an at- 
tack upon Pope's front, even if successful, would be unavailing, 
because that would only drive him back upon ^IcC'lellan. Lee, 
therefore, determined u]>()n a mov<'ment unsurpassed for boldness 
in the annals of war. lie threw his whole army entirely around 
the right tlank of Pope, and, by rapid marching, gained his rear, 
thus establishing himsell directly bietw^een the two hostile armies, 
each outnumbering his own. His safety depended upon the prompt 
defeat of Pope. Failure was destruction. Lee had Jifty thou- 
sand, Poi)e seventy-Jive thousand men. Under these cii'cumstances 
the great battle of the second Manassas was delivered, resulting 
in the complete defeat of Pope and the retirement of his entire 
army within the defenses of AYashington. 

Thus, within ninety days from the date of his assuming com- 
mand, the genius of Lee, operating against over-whelming odds, 
had completely reversed the relative situation of the contending 
forces, and rolled back the tide of war from the fortifications of 
Eichmond to the outposts of Washington. 

But the task of the Confederate commander was like that of 
Sysiphus. 

He stood victorious in battle, but what was he to do with his 
victory ? The attempt to besiege or assault the Federal army in 



28 ORATION. 

the defenses of Washington was too absurd for serious contem- 
plation. He coukl not maintain his army in its then advanced 
position, because the country was stripped of supjilies, and there 
Avas no railroad communication with Richmond nearer than the 
Eapidau. To fall back would be to forfeit the prestige of suc- 
cess, and to leave the enemy, with his overwhelming numbers 
free to organize another exi)edition, by the water route of the 
James, to the gates of Eichmond, and thus to reinstate the peril 
which had just been averted. 

The bokl resolve was quickly taken to cross the Potomoc, find 
subsistence on the enemy's soil, force his adversary to leave his 
fortifications and meet him on a battlefield of his own selection, 
where a victory might arouse the discontented i)eople of Mary- 
land, and lead to other advantages of incalculable value. 

A formidable Federal force oHwelve thousand men lay at Harper's 
Ferry, on the flank and rear of his intended movement. It was ab- 
solutely essential that this force should be captured or dispersed. 
This must be done certainly and quickly, and, to make sure, a 
strong force must be dispatched for the purpose. He therefore, 
detached Jackson with five divisions to sweep tliis obstacle from 
the iiath, and then by rapid marching to rejoin him in time to 
join battle witli tlie army of McClellan. Lee retained, in the 
meanwhile, only three divisions to confront that vast force, trust- 
ing that Jackson's task would be accomplished before McClellan 
should discover the weakness of the force . left to oppose him. 
There is no reason to doubt that the plan would liave succeeded, 
but for one of those accidents whicli "turn awry" the best laid 
schemes. One of Lee's orders to his general officers formulating 
the movement, was lost in some way and fell into the hands of 
the enemy. McClellan, thus fortuitously i!pi)rised of the depart- 
ure of Jackson and of the slight force left to oppose him, was 
quick to hurl his army ui)on the latter, confident of annihilating 
it before Jackson could come to its rescue. Tlie situation was 
fraught with peril, but the heroic resistance of this small force at 
South Mountain Pass ancY (Brampton's Gap, held McClellan in 
check until Jackson by tremendous forced marches, having ac- 
complished the object of his detour, was able to rejoin it; and Lee 
was thus enabled, at last, to concentrate his army for the battle 
of Shari)sburg. Tlie accident of tlie lost order, however, de- 
stroyed the chance of that success which might otherwise have 



ORATION. 29 

attended tliis brilliantly planned expedition. The divisions with 
Lee leached Sliarpsbnig worn and fatigued, and with ranks 
decimated by the severe fighting they had undergone, while the 
extraordinary forced marches to which Jackson was driven, had 
strewed his route with exhausted and broken-down men. 

Lee delivered bnttle in this engagement with titirty-jive thous- 
(oid men, worn out and exhausted as we have seen, against 
eighty-seven thousand under McClellan. The result was a drawai 
battle, both sides resting on their arms the following day, on the 
night of which Lee, quietly and without molestation, retired his 
army across the Potomac. 

But for the lost order, nothing indicates a doubt that, after the 
success of Jackson's movement, Lee would have eft'ected an un- 
opposed and leisurely concentration of his forces, in a position 
chosen by himself, where, with at least fifty thousand men, fresh 
and elated with victory, he would have met the onslaught of Mc- 
Clellan. The result of the engagement actually delivered, as 
well as of past contests, leaves little doubt that an overwhelming 
victory would have been achieved, the consequences of which no 
man can now divine. 

Xot until October, 18G2, did the Federal army recross the Po- 
tomac. A new commander, Gen. Burnside, now leapt into the 
saddle. His career in that capacity was si)eedily ended by the 
crushing defeat at Fredericksburg, where, with one hundred 
thousand men, he had the temerity to assault Lee in strong* x^osi- 
tion with seventy-Jive thousand. This was the easiest victory of 
the war, intiicting terrific loss uj^ou the attacking force, while 
that of Lee was insignificant. 

The next act of this tremendous drama opens with the spring 
of 1863, when Lee, with Hfty-seven thousand men, confronted 
Hooker, the new Federal commander with one hundred and thirty- 
tico thousand. 

JSTow, Lee, look to thy charge ! These be odds which might 
well strike terror to the stoutest heart. 

Sedgwick, with a strong force, crossed the river below Fred- 
ericksburg and demonstrated against Lee's front, while Hooker, 
with the bulk of his army, swept around Lee's left, crossing at 
the upper fords, and concentrated at Chancellorsville, in posi- 
tion, not ten miles removed, to assail Lee in left flank and rear. 
The ordinary commander would have escaped from this cul-de-sac 



30 ORATION. 

by promi)tly retiring his army and establisliing it between his 
enemy and coveted Riclunoud. But Lee never failed to find, 
in the division of his adversary's forces, an opportunity to neu- 
tralize, as far as possible, the odds against him, by striking him 
in fragments. Lee's resolve was promjitly taken. Leaving the 
gallant Early with only nine thousand men to handle Sedgwick,, 
he himself with the forty-eight thousand remaiiniig, marched 
straight for Chancellorsville, vigorously assaulted the advance 
of Hooker and soon placed that portion of the Federal army on 
a serious defensive. No time was to be lost. Sedgwick would 
soon drive back the inferior force of Early, ajid come thundering 
on his rear. Hooker must be disposed of promptly, or all was 
lost. Hooker had serenty-five thousand men well entrenched, 
which was inci eased to ninety thousand before the battle was 
over. Direct assault was desperate, if not hopeless. ''The lion's 
skin is too short, we must eke it out with the fox's." 

By a movement whose inconceivable boldness alone insured its 
success, lie still further divided his force, and remaining with 
only 14,000 men in Hooker's front, he sent Jackson with the rest 
of his army to march across Hooker's line of battle clear around 
his right, and there, to dash upon his ilaidv and rear, while by 
simultaneous assault upon his front he would be inevitably 
crushed. 

AYith that rapidit}' and perfection of execution which charac- 
terized him, Jackson, unobserved, reached the coveted position, 
stood with Fitzhugh Lee alone ui)on an eminence from which he 
looked down upon the unsuspecting camps of the enemy, de- 
ployed his forces for assault and hurled them upon the astonished 
foe. This took place in the afternoon, and before night had sus- 
Ijended operations Hooker's discomfiture Avas assured. The ad- 
vantage was promptly and vigorously pushed on the next morn- 
ing ; in the course of which Lee and Stuart (who had succeeded 
to the command of the wounded Jackson), again touched elbows, 
swept Hooker's army out of its works at Chancellorsville and 
sent it reeling and broken back upon the Eappahannock. 

Hooker thus disposed of, now for Sedgwick. Early had, by 
his gallant resistance, gained i^recious time and given serious 
occupation to Sedgwick, but the immensely superior numbers of 
the latter had at last forced Early back and were advancing ux)- 
on Lee's rear towards Chancellorsville. Lee now gathered up 



ORATION. 31 

the most available of his victorious forces and rushing- to the re- 
inforcement of Early, speedily converted Sedgwick's advance in- 
to a swift retreat ; which would have resulted in his capture had 
not the friendly cover of night checked pursuit and enabled 
him to cross the liappahannock. So ended the operations of 
Chancellorsville, at the close of which Gen. Hooker found his 
army, demoralized by defeat and weakened by tremendous losses, 
in those very camps opposite Fredericksburg, fr<^m which they 
had so recently set out to imagined victory over an infe- 
rior foe. 

Chancellorsville ! brightest and saddest of Confederate tri- 
umphs. Brightest, because the military history of the future 
must ever point to it as the most conspicuous example of the 
power of consummate genius in a commander, by audaci(ms wis- 
dom of conception, celerity of movement, and knowing how and 
when to venture on risks which, by the very sublimity of their 
rashness, escape anticipation or discover}', and thereby become 
prudent and safe, to accomplish the apparently impossible and to 
snatch victory from overwhelming odds. Saddest, because in its 
tangled thickets and in the shades of that night which fell upon 
the most brilliant achievement of the war, the immortal Jackson, 
busy in organizing' the sure victory of the morrow, rode upon 
that death, which leaves the world yet in doubt as to whether 
the fatal bullet that caused it did not, at the same time, deal the 
death-wound of the Confederacy. If Lee was the Jove of the 
war, Stonewall Jackson was his thunderbolt. For the execution 
of the hazardous plans of Lee, just such a lieutenant was indis- 
l^ensable — one in whose lexicon there was "no such word as 
fail," for whom the imi^ossible did not exist, and who, in com- 
bined manoeuvres depending for success upon separate and con- 
sentaneous movements, ever assumed that one which was most 
difficult and made it the most certain of execution. Never his 
the task of giving good, bad or indifferent reasons for the non- 
execution of any order confided to him, or for not executing it in 
the manner, or within the time contem])lated. xVlas ! we now aj)- 
proach the critical and disastrous campaign of Gettysburg, the 
whole history of which, on the Confederate side, is made up of 
controversies as to why this, that, or the other order of the com- 
mander was not executed, or executed too late, or executed im- 
perfectly, and at everj" turn of which we involuntarily exclaim, 



32 



ORATION. 



" Wliero, oh where was Jacksou theu ? One Wast upon his 
bugle horn were wortli a thousand men ! " 

The motives for the advance into Pennsylvania were similar to 
those already indicated as prompting the movement into Mary- 
land of the previous year. 

The campaign was attended with misfortune from the start. 
The miscarriage of Stuart's cavalry deprived Gen. Lee of its co- 
operation and left him in a strange and hostile country without 
its necessary aid in feeling his way and keeping him apprized of 
his surroundings. This precipitated the unexpected clash at 
Gettysburg, which took place without premeditation on either 
side. 

I shall not enter into the details of this tremendous battle, be- 
cause I cannot do so without involving myself in the controvers- 
ies already suggested. 

The failure to press the advantage gained in the first day's 
fighting, as ordered by Lee, and thus to gain the historic heights 
of Gettysburg ; the delay to deliver the assault ordered for the 
early morning of the second day until four o'clock in the evening, 
thus allowing the enemy to increase his forces, strengthen his 
position and to occupy the eminence of Bound Top ; the disjoint- 
ed character of the assault when made, in which the advantage 
gained by our right wing was lost because the delay of the 
left wing in advanciug,left the former Avithout necessary support; 
the like miscarriage and failure of the general assault ordered 
for the following morning, in which the advance of our left wing 
was paralyzed because not responded to by the simultaneous 
movement of the right; and the final tremendous blunder, by 
which the immortal charge of Pickett's and Heth's divisions, 
launched across half a mile of open plain swept by an over- 
whelming fire of artillery, against fortified heights occupied by 
vastly superior numbers, and culminating in their actual capture 
and the planting of standards upon the guns of the enemy, was 
robbed of its results by the lack of support — these errors blasted 
the fair hopes of a victory which might have changed the result 
of the war. 

I leave to history the task of adjudging the blame for these 
errors. I content myself with declaring, as the result of my 
study of the evidence, that Lee was not in fault. The electric 
cord which bound the great Lieutenants of Lee to each other, 



OEATION. 33 

and to their couimaiider, and wliich on so many other fields made 
them invincible and crowned them with imjjerishable laurels, 
seems, on that day, to have sped but a broken current. As Lee 
was eager to save them from blame and to say "it was all my 
fsinlt," their generous souls would be the first to exonerate him 
and repudiate his self-sacrifice. 

The battle of Gettysburg was delivered by Gen. Lee with 
•sixty-two thousand men of all aruis against one hundred and 
Jive thousand of the enemy. Considering that Lee was the 
attacking party and was repulsed, it must be accepted as 
a Confederate defeat. l>ut such, was the imijression produced 
upon the enemy by its fierce assaults that he was ignorant 
of his victory, and the question engaging his attention seems 
to have been, not whether he should x)ress a defeated adversary, 
but whether he should himself await a repetition of the attack. 

Crimson with the setting of the sun which fell upon the field 
of Gettysburg, boding storm and tempest to the Confederate 
cause; yet it substantially ended the campaign of 1863, and left 
the Federal army farther from Richmond than it was at its ox)en- 
ing. 

Lee recrossed the Potomac at leisure and 's^'ithout serious mo- 
lestation, and none but minor operations intervened until the 
sirring of 1864. 

We now approach that last and matchless campaign in which 
the " consummate flower " of Lee's soldiership burst into its full- 
est bloom, and witched the world with its beauty. 

The grim hero of Vicksburg and of Missionary Eidge, a man 
of inflexible will and desperate tenacity, who measured his own 
resources and those of his adversary with merciless precision, 
stepx^ed to the head of the Army of the Potomac. That army 
was now swollen to an enormous host of one hundred and forty- 
one thousand men, while his home Government, weary of fail- 
ure and desperately in earnest, gave him the assurance of rein- 
forcement whenever required. 

Lee confronted him with sixty -four thousand men, precious men, 
the death or capture of every one of whom was a loss not to be 
repaired. 

The grandest compliment ever paid by one soldier to another 
was paid by Grant to Lee in the famous " attrition" order of the 
former. It openly abandoned competition with hijn in the fields 



34 ORATION. 

of strategy and inaiupuvre, and siiii])ly in'(>i)()sed to liuii sui)erior 
against inferior i'orces until, " l)y tlie mere force of attrition," 
tlie latter should be annihilated. Whatever else may be said of 
it, the plan seemed sure of success, and it succeeded ; but at the 
cost of such enormous destruction to the superior force as the 
Federal general could hardly have contemplated. 

The situation was, from the first, a desperate one for Lee. The 
odds against him and the enemy's unlimited capacity for main- 
taining and increasing them, left little chance for a decisive vic- 
tory. He might not liope that Grant would divide his forces, 
and give him the chance, so often i)roflted by in the past, of 
whipx^iug him in detail. The policy of retreat, however "mas- 
terly," could lead to but one result — the final sulmiission to a 
siege within the defenses of Eichmond, and consequent abandon- 
ment of the capital. 

The only course which jiromised the possibility of success was 
to fight from the start, to attack regardless of odds whenever op- 
portunity offered, to dispute every step of the advance, to hold 
every position to the last, and to take those chances which, upon 
the most unequal fields, genius sometimes finds, to snatch vic- 
tory from the very jaws of despair. 

There is something magnificent in the audacity with which, as 
soon as Grant had crossed the Eapidan, and set his vast force on 
the advance to llichmoud, Lee marched straight for him, and in- 
stantly grappled with him in the Wilderness. A. terrible wres- 
tle ensued, lasting for two days, in which the advantage Avas on 
the Confederate side. It was Grant, and not Lee, who retired 
from this struggle and sought by a rapid fiank movement to gain 
Spottsylvania Court-House. But Lee anticipated his design, and 
reaching that point simultaneously with Grant, again ojjposed 
his army to his advance on Richmon<l. Here again the two ar- 
mies closed in desperate fight, in which, as at the Wilderness, 
the losses of the enemy were terrific. After repeated and fierce 
assaults. Grant again retired from this field, and moved by the 
flank toward Bowling Green, but Lee reached Hanover Junction 
in time to place himself again in his front. 

Declining the gage of battle here offered. Grant began a series 
of flank movements eastward, Lee moving on parallel lines and 
confronting him at every halt, until at last the two armies met 
on the historic field of Cold Harbor. 



ORATION. 35 

Here Grant again closed with liis adversary and liurled liis 
columns in repeated assaults upon the impregnable front of Lee, 
repulsed with such terrible carnage that, though the intrepid 
Federal commander would have desperately continued them, his 
troops, gallant as they were, unmistakably reminded liim that 
they were weary of slaughter. 

This camx>J^igu may be said to have ended with the next move- 
ments of Grant, which brought him in front of Petersburg, within 
the entrenchments of which by the invalual)le co-operation of 
Louisiana's foremost soldier, Beauregard, Lee succeeded in estab- 
lishing his army, and the siege of Petersburg was begun. 

Take now a brief retrospect of the campaign. 

Grant started with over 0)U' hundred and /orfy-o)ie fhoi(s<(Hd men 
against sixty-foHr thousand men. He received reinforcements 
swelling his aggregate engaged in the campaign to one hundred 
and ninety-two thousand men, while Lee had received hnt fourteen 
thousand reinforcement. Lee had so managed his inferior force as 
to confront his adversary at every halt and to be read}" for battle 
whenever offered. Such skill had he displayed in the selection 
of his positions and the disposition of his ti'ooi)S that he repulsed 
every assault, won every battle and forced his adversary to retire 
from every field. According to the authority of S^vinton, the 
Federal historian, Grant had lost sixty-thoTisand men, a number 
nearly equal to the entire force of his opponent. And what had 
the Federal commander accom])lished ? He had reached a point 
on the James Kiver, the water route to Eichmond always open, 
where, in much less time and without the loss of a man, he might 
have established himself at the opening of the campaign. 

The siege of Petersburg ! How shall I commemorate it ? How 
shall I do justice to the heroism displayed in the defense of those 
immortal lines ? During nine weary months the great Federal 
leader, with all his intrepid daring, with his unquestioned mili- 
tary talent, with his vastly superior force, with all the expedients 
of science and art at his command, and with unlimited supplies 
of everything essential for his oi^erations, struggled in vain to 
surmount them. He tried to get over them by assault. He tried 
to get under them by subterranean mining. He tried to get 
around them by flanking. He tried to move them out of his way, 
by explosion. In vain ! The genius of Lee met and foiled him at 
every point. 



36 ORATION. 

And wliat shiill be said of that little band of immortal lieroes, 
the Don Quixote of armies, who, with unfaltering- devotion and 
unflinching- courage, stood by Lee during the long months of 
this renowned siege ? For four years they had fought, and it 
might have been sui^poscMl that they were weary of strife. Hunger 
often gnawed at their vitals, and famine sometimes stared them in 
the face. With tattered garments, and often shoeless feet, they 
shivered in the freezing winter winds. Disasters everywhere to 
the Confederate cause robbed them of the soldier's solace, the 
hope and confidence of ultimate triumph. Turning- from their 
own cheerless lot to their distant homes, the tidings they re- 
ceived from wives and children and aged parents told of burning- 
roof- trees, of flight before invading- armies, of want, desolation 
and despair. 

And yet tliey fought on ; defied ill-omened augury ; dared fate 
to do her worst; and with a sublime confidence and matchless 
devotion such as, I dare to say, no other cause and no other com- 
mivjider ever inspired, they stood by Lee to the very last. 

And when the end came, when Gordon had '■'fought his coriJS 
to a frazzle," and when in fierce combat every other corps had 
been torn into shreds; when a mere remnant was left surrounded 
on every side by foes in such overpowering- numbers that further 
resistance would have been a wanton sacrifice of precious lives; 
and when, at last, Lee submitted to the inevitable and yielded 
his sword to the victor, these grim aa arriors gathered round him, 
seeming- more affected by his humiliation than by their own 
calamity, and with tearful eyes and kissing- the very hem of his 
garments, gave him their affectionate adieux, and sadly turned 
to the new lives which ojDened before them. 

Success is not always the test of soldiership. 

Hannibal ended his carreer as a soldier in the overwhelming 
defeat of Zama, and died a fugitive in a foreign land. 

Charles XII of Sweden, that meteor of war, defeated at Pul- 
towa, sought safety in exile, and on returning to his native land, 
met death in a vain attempt to restore his fallen fortunes. 

Napoleon died, a prisoner and an exile, after his complete 
overthrow on the field of Waterloo, where he encountered odds 
less than those which w ere opposed to Lee in any battle which 
he ever fought. 

Considering- the importance of his operations, the large forces 



OKATION. 37 

engaged, the immense superiority of his adversaries m iimiil)ers 
and resources, the skillful commanders whom he successively 
vanquished, the number of his victories, the brilliancy and suc- 
cessful audacity of hi>s strategy and tactical manteuvres and the 
magnificent teuacity Avhich yielded, at last, to destruction rather 
thau defeat — I challenge for Lee an exalted rank amongst the 
very greatest captains of the world. 

The only obstacle which Lee encounters to the universal re- 
cognition of his greatness lies in the perverseness of human na- 
ture, which exacts, as compensation for the admiration accorded 
to great qualities, the privilege of criticising the faults, weaknesses 
and excesses with w hicli they are usually accouq)anied. 

His freedom from eccentricities, the absence of merely per- 
sonal ambition, and the simple and perfect eqnip<Mse of his tem- 
per, lead shallow minds to deny the force of his individuality, for- 
getting that these very qualities themselves constitute an ennob- 
ling eccentricitj^, shared in the same degree by no other military 
character, or by Washington alone. 

Certainly the impression produced by him upon his contempo- 
raries was marvelous. As Ave have seen, his first commander, 
Winfield Scott, pronounced him '^the greatest living soldier of 
America." His loftiest subordinate, Stonewall Jackson, whose 
splendid capacities and achievements lifted him into rivalry with 
Lee himself, said of him : "Lee is a phenomenon — the only man 
I ever knew that I would be willing to follow blindfold." The 
estimate of him by his soldiers is illustrated by the commentary 
of two " learned Thebans" among them upon Darwin's theory of 
evolution, in wliich one said to the other : '■' Well, you and I and 
the rest of us may be descended from monkeys, but how are you 
to account for Marse Eobert ? " Such was their sublime confi- 
dence in him tiiat they regarded criticism of him as blasphemous, 
and were so blind even to his errors that they were like the dis- 
ciple of Cato, who, when the philospher died by his own hand, 
declared that " he would rather believe suici<le to be right thau 
that Cato could do anything wrong." 

Let nothing I have said be construed as disparaging the valor 
of the Union trooi)s, the skill of their leaders or the splendor of 
their achievements. On the contrary, the tribute 1 have paid to 
the genius of Lee and the heroism of his soldiers, only emblazons 
their triumph and lends to it a glory which, otherwise, it would 



38 OEATION. 

not possess. And equally is it the surest foundation of Lee's 
fame that his victories were won from "foemon worthy of his 
steel." 

Away with such comi^arisons ! Eeturning from our voyage 
over historic seas, in quest of the golden fleece of noble deeds 
and heroic lives, we bring- on shore "the riches of the ship," and 
cast them iuto the treasury of our common country. Sail forth, 
adventurers, on whatever sea, lind such jewels where ye may, 
and whether their tint be gray or blue, the republic will bear 
them as her proudest ornaments. 

My task is done. The fruitfulness of the theme has led me to 
tax your i)atiencefar beyond excuse. I may not follow Lee in 
that gracious and beautiful life to wliich he retired as college 
president, at the close of the war, and in which he labored, to the 
moment of his death, in repairing the neglected education of the 
Southern youth, and in teaching his people, by X)recept and ex- 
ample, tlie lesson that "human fortitude should be e(]nal to hu- 
man (.-alamity," the duty of adapting themselves to the situation 
in which Providence liad placed them, of buihling up their ruined 
fortunes, and by a faithful discharge of the duties of citizenship, 
of re-establishing themselves as members of that Union from 
which fate did not permit them to depart. 

I may not pause to epitoihize the various qualities which mark 
Lee as a great captain. His deeds speak for themselves, and 
exhibit the characteristics of that military genius which enabled 
him to acliieve them. 

1 may not sto}) to delineate the peculiar nobility and snblimity 
of his character, nor the "daily beauty in his life," which, 
from the cradle to the grave, knew no diminution of its pure and 
steady lustre, which captivated the admiration of the good, and 
subdued, by its subtle influence, even the nmlice of the bad. 

I nuiy not enumerate those historic examples of heroic courage, 
by which, in desperate crises of battle, when the fate of the 
struggle trembled in the balance, he took his life in his hands, 
and would have rushed into the jaws of destruction, had not his 
faithful soldiers forced him to the rear, and, reanimated by his 
daring, restored, by superhuman valor, the fortunes of the day. 
Whenever, in all future time, the leader in some great cause, 
finding- his followers about to yield, shall be inspired to reanimate 
them by imperiling his own life, let him, who first feels the shame 



ORATION. 39 

of such exposure, but raise tlie cry of "Lee to t' e rear!" and, if 
they be made of mauly stuff, tlie reniembrauce of tlie grand ex- 
ample tlirice set upon Virginia fields will avert that leader's dan- 
ger and win the day without it ! 

Proudly, then, we unveil this monument, fearless of any denial 
that it perpetuates tlie memory of a man justly entitled to rank 
as one of the princes of his race, and worthy of the veneration of 
the world. 

The Christian nniy point to it as commemorative of one who 
faithfully wore the armor of Christ, and who fashioned his life as 
nearly after that of the God-Man as human im]>erfeetion would 
permit. 

The moralist may recognize in it a tribute to a friend of 
humanity to whom i)ride and self-seeking were unknown, and 
whose uncouscious nobility of conduct answers to the descrip- 
tion of a virtuous man given by the imperial i)hilosopher, Marcus 
Antoninus : "He does good acts as if not even knowing what he 
has done, and is like a vine which has produced grapes and 
seeks for nothing more after it has produced its proper fruit. 
Such a man, when he has done a good act, does not call for 
others to come and see, but goes on to another act, as a vine 
goes on to produce again tlie grapes in season." 

The social philosopher will see in it a tribute to the highest 
type of gentleman, in birth, in nuinners, in accomplishments, in 
appearance, in feeling, in habit. 

The lover of the heroic will find here honor paid to a chivalry 
and courage which place Lee by the side of Bayard and of Sid- 
ney, "I'rom s^mr to i)lume a star of tournament." 

It is fitting that monuments should he erected to such a man. 

The imagination might, alas ! too easily, picture a crisis in the 
future of the llepublic, when virtue might have lost her seat in 
the hearts of the people, when the degrading greed of money- 
getting might have undermined the nobler aspirations of their 
souls, when luxury and efleminacy might have emasculated the 
rugged courage and endurance upon which the safety of States 
depends, when corrui)tion might thrive and liberty might 
languish, when pelf might stand above patriotism, self above 
country. Mammon before (lod. and when the patriot might read 
on every hand the sure passage : 

"111 fares the laiul, to liasteniiig ills a pi'ey, 
Where wealth aeciumilates and nieu decay !" 



40 ORATION. 

In sucli an hour — quam DU avertite — let some inspired orator, 
alive to the peril of liis country, summon the people to gather 
round this monument, and, pointing to that noble figure, let him 
recount his story, and if aught can arouse a noble shame and 
awaken dormant virtue, that may do it. 

The day is not distant when all citizens of this great Rej^ub- 
lic will unite in claiming Lee as their own, and rising from the 
study of his heroic life and deeds, will cast away the prejudices 
of forgotten strife and exclaim : 

"We kuow liiiu now; all uarrow jealousies 
Are silent, and we see him as he moved— 
How modest, kindly, ali-accomplished, wise. 
With what sublime repression of himself— 
Wearing the white tiower of a blameless life." 

But, proudest, tenderest thought of all, the people of this 
bright Southland say, through this monument, to all the world: 

"Such was he ; his work is done, 
But while the races of mankind endure, 
Let his great example stand, 
Colossal, seen of every land. 
And keep the soldier firm, the statesman ijure, 
♦ Till in all lands and through all human story. 

The path of Duty be the way to glory !" 




HISTORICAL SKETCH 



OF THE — 



R, E, LEE MONUMENTAL ASSOCIATION 



The E. E. Lee Moniiinental Association of New Orleans, had 
its origin in tliat grand outbnrst of tribntaiy grief at the death 
of Lee, which, while it covered his tomb witli the votive offerings 
of tlie good and wise of all civilized nations, prostrated the peo- 
ple of the Southern States of this Union in peculiar and unut- 
terable woe. 

The Association was organized November 10th, 1870, with the 
following officers and directors : 

Wm. M. PERKINS, -------- President. 

G. T. BEAUREGARD, - - - 1st Vice President. 
A. W. BOSWORTH, - - - - 2d Vice President. 

Wm. S. pike, - Treasurer. 

Thos. J. BECK, ------ Recording Sec'ty. 

JAMES STRAWBRIDGE, - - - - Corres. Sec'ty. 

Directors. 

Hugh McCloskey, Henry Renshaw, R. S. Morse, 

A. M. Fortier, Edward Barnett, Samuel Boyd, 

Chas. E. Fenner, George Jonas, S. H. Kennedy, 

Wm. B. Schmidt, Abram Thomas, Newton Richards, 

Wm. H. Damcron, Lloyd R. Coleman, Jas. Jackson, 

W. N. Mercer, Ed. A. Palfrey, E. A. Tyler, 

M. O. H. Norton, Arch. Mitchell, Ed. Bigney. 

It is unnecessary to say why the enterprise languished. It was 
in tljose dark days when jioverty sat by every honest hearth- 
stone in New Orleans, and when tlie scanty remnant left by the 



42 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

greedy tax-gatlierer was too soi'ely needed for the necessities of 
the living to be spared for building monuments, even to the most 
illustrious dead. 

In the course of years, it came to be remembered that the 
small fund which had been accumulated by the first efforts of the 
founders of the association, was lying i<Ile in bank, and a meet- 
ing of the directors was called on February 18th, 1876, for the 
purjDose of determining whether the association should not be 
dissolved, and its funds returned to the donors or distributed to 
charitable associations. 

A call of the roll at that meeting revealed the fin-t that, in the 
years which had passed, the president, the treasurer, the secre- 
tary and eleven (11) of the original directors had died. 

A re-organization was then effected constituting the following 
officers and directors: Chas. E. Fenner, President ; CI. T. Beaure- 
gard, 1st Vice President ; M. Musson, 2d Vice President ; S. H. 
Kennedy, Treasurer, W. I. Hodgson, Eecording Secretary ; W. 
M. Owen, Corresponding Secretary. Directors — W. B. Schmidt, 
Geo. Jonas, Lloyd R. Coleman, R. S. Morse, E. A. Tyler, Jas. 
Buckner, Thos. A. Adams, Sam'l Choppin, S. H. Snowden, W. 
T. Yaudry, Henry Eenshaw, E. A. Palfrey, Sam'l Boyd, Arch, 
Mitchell, W. C. Black, B. A. Pope, Jas. I. Day, I. L. Lyons, J. J. 
Mellon, E. D. Willett. 

The times were scarcely more propitious than they had been 
before, but when the Directors stood foce to face with the propo- 
sition to abandon the work, their })atriotic impulses refused to 
accept it, and inspired them with the determination, at all haz- 
ards, to complete it. 

It was then, resolved, with the means which could be immedi- 
ately commanded, to begin the monument, as the best means of 
assuring its completion. 

Of the numerous designs submitted, that of our distinguished 
home-architect, Mr. John Roy, was selected, not only because of 
its artistic merit and beauty, but also because its plan was such 
that its construction could proceed just as far and as fast as our 
means would permit. 

And so was built the monument which exists to-day. 

The difficult and expensive foundation, the massive mound of 
earth, the granite pyramid, and the shapely marble column, were 
all constructed under a contract with Mr. Roy, which provided 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



t3 



tliat hus MOik should progress just as last as onr iiicans would 
allow, st(»i)phig' when the treasury was empty and proceediug 
when it was replenished. 

Slow and tedious was its progress, olten halting, while fresh 
appeals could be made to the liberality of the people of Xew Or- 
leans. They were always answered, and, surely though slowly, 
stone was piled upon stone, until, wheu the cap stoue was set 
upon the lofty pillar, the whole was paid for. 

Then came the task of providiug the means for the colossal 
bronze statue which now crowus the work. 

The means of the Associati(ui did not allow the privilege of 
calling to its aid the reigniug kings of the artist world. 

Fortune threw in our way, a youug ' sculi)tor, Alexander C. 
Doyle, of ]!S[ew York, who had already given some evidence of the 
mettle that was in him, and who had such confidence in his own ca- 
pacity, that he was willing to execute a plaster model of the 
exact size of the proposed statue, and from ^^•hich the latter was 
to be directly moulded, subject absolutely to the acce[)tance of 
the association aud without cost uidess satisfactory. 

That work was done by him in the St. Louis Hotel building of 
this city — how well, let the statm', now standing in Lee Place, tell 
to admiring tiuiusands. In purity of conception, spirit and grace 
of pose and expressive resemblance, it is not unworthy of the 
subject. 

After various changes, the officers and directors of the associa- 
tion consisted of the following : 

CHARLES E. FEXXER, - President. 

G. T. BEAUREGARD, - - First Vice President. 

M. MUSSOX, Second Vice President. 

S. H. KENNEDY, Treasurer, 

W. I. HODGSON, - - - - RECORDiNCf Secretary. 

W. M. OWEN, - - - Corresponding Secretary. 

Directors. 
AV. T. Yaudry, 
A. H. May, 
W. J. Beiian, 
J. L. Harris, 
E. A. Burke, 
I. L. Lyons, 
C. H. Allen, 



W. B. Schmidt, 
Alfred Moulton, 
James Jackson, 
Samuel Boyd, 
J. C. Morris, 
J. J. Mellon, 
Ad. Meyer, 



R. :\r. Walmsley, 
Lloyd R. Coleman, 
Cartwright Eustis, 
Ed. A. Palfrey, 
Arch. Mitchell, 
James McConnell, 
E. Borland. 



44 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

The statue having been comphited, the board selected the aiiui- 
versaiy of the birth of Washington, the 22d of February, 1884, 
as an appropriate occasion for the ceremonies of unveiling. 

Great i^reparations had been made for the event. An immense 
platform had been erected for the accommodation of subscribers 
to the association and other invited guests, nnd upon whicli the 
ceremonies were to take place, while in front, and ux)on the slop- 
ing sides of the mound at the base of the monument, seats were 
provided for thousands. 

The day broke threatening and cloudy, ])ut notwithstanding 
its stormy aspect, tliere was such an assemblage of the people 
as has never been seen in the Southern States. The seats were 
filled with ladies, while* the circle and even the streets approach- 
ing it were crowded by the luultitude eager to do honor to the 
memory of Lee. 

Am<mgst the many distinguislied persons in attendance Avere 
the President of the Coufederate States, Jefferson Davis, his 
daughters, and Misses Mary and Mildred Lee, daughters of the 
great soldier and patriot, in whose honor the monument was 
erected. The associations of the armies of jSTorthern Virginia 
and Tennessee, the militia of the State, and a large delegation 
from the Grand Army of the Eepublic honored the occasion i by 
their presence. Just as the ceremonies were about to begin, the 
storm, wliicli had been gathering, burst in torrents of rain Avhich 
lasted for hours, dispersing the immense audience and rendering- 
it impossible to proceed. In the midst of it, however, and while 
the salvos of Heaven's Artillery almost drowned the salute Avith 
AA'hich, in despite of the storm, the CA'ent Avas greeted by the 
famous Washington Artillery, the monument Avas unveiled by a 
private soldier of Lee's army, Avho, at the suggestion of Miss 
Lee, in herself declining tlie honor, bad been selected to i)erform 
this duty. 

Immediately a meeting of the Directors Avas held at the 
Washington Artillery armory, of the proceedings of Avhich the 
folloAving official minute gives a full account and forms the ap- 
propriate close to this sketch : 

OFFICIAL MINUTES OF THE ASSOCIATION 
E. E. Lek Monumental Association, February 22, 1884. 
Immediately after the dispersion by the storm of the immense 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 45 

audience gathered to participate iu the ceremonies attending tlie 
unveilingof the statue of Lee, the directors of this Association 
met at tlie Washington Artillery Hall, to determine what course 
should be pursued with reference to the ceremonies. 

After consideration and discussion, the following resolutions 
were proposed and unanimously adopted : 

Whereas, the iiunieuse aiulieuce assembled tiiis day at Lee Statne, lias 
signalized the veneration and respect in which the people of New Orleans 
hold the jnemory of Robert E. Lee, and the enthusiastic appioval with 
whioii they regard the erection of the monument to liini ; and, whereas, 
a postponement of the ceremonies could add nothing to the tribute al- 
ready paid thereby : 

Be it resolved, That the oration prepared for the occasion be published ; 
that the Mayor being present, the presentation of the nioumucnt to the 
city of New Orleans by the President of this association, be forthwith 
made ; that the directors of the association proceed immediately to the 
statue, and that the Bishop. J. N. Galleher, here present, be requested 
to invoke the blessing of Almighty God upon the work, and that the 
ceremonies of the occasion be then considered as concluded. 

Besolred, That the Board of Directors tender their thanks to the 
Grand Army of the Republic, the Associations of the Armies of North- 
ern Virginia and of Tennessee, the m.ilitia of the State and all visiting 
organizarions, as well as to the patriotic women and men of the South, 
for their attendance iu such enormous numbers, and express their re- 
gret that the storm prevented the completion of the ceremonies. 

After the adoption of the foregoing resolution, Hon. Chas. E. 
Fenner, President of the Association, arose and addressed Mayor 
Behan as follows : 

i)/r. Jfrt //or— As President of the R. E. Lee Monumental Association, 
and in its behalf, I have now the honor of presenting the monument this 
day unveiled, through you to the city of New Orleans. 

What I have to say touching the illustrious man to whom it is erected 
has been uttered in another form . 

Tlie immense outpouring of the people of New Orleans which congre- 
gated around the statue to-day, defying the elements until all hope of 
further proceedings had to be abandoned, testifies to the deep and en 
thusiastic veneration with wliicli his memory is revered by the women 
and men of the South. 

The design of the monument and its construction up to the base of the 
statue are the work of our home architect, Mr. John Eoy ; while the 
statue itself is the production of a young American sculptor, Mr. A. C. 
Doyle, of New York, whose growing reputation will surely be confirmed 
and extended thereby. 

I experience a peculiar pleasure in finding our city represented in her 
chief officer by one who was a distinguished soldier under Lee, and who 



46 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

was at the same time an active member of tliis Association and contri- 
buted valuable aid in the successful accomplisment of our enterprise. 

Louisiana is entitled to a full share in the glory of Lee. Her sons illus- 
trated by their valor every field on whi'^h his fame was won. 

To her chief city we confide this monument, with full assurance that 
she Avill appreciate and preserve it as one of her most precious posses- 
sions. 

Thereupou Mayor Belian arose and responded as follows : 

Mr. Chairman and GeniJcmoi of tlie Lee ^loniimcntaJ Association: 

In accepting at your hands and receiving' into the charge of the city of 
New Orleans the monument which, now completed, so proudly -tands as 
an enduring tribute to valor, worth and military genius, it is indeed 
difificnlt to sufficiently acknowledge the appreciation and respect with 
which our public must regard the nffectionate devotion of those who 
have contributed to its construction. 

This shaft has been erected as a tribute to the greatness and virtue of 
one of the purest aud noblest men whose ij,ames are written in modern 
history. 

Gen, Lee was not only illustrious as a great commander, but he was 
also great in all those attributes which might constitute a brilliant 
exemplar of the highest civilization. 

Gentlemen, it needed not this monument to perpetuate the name and 
fame of Gen. Lee. His deeds are his monument, aud they will survive 
and continue in remembrance long after this marble shall have crumbled 
into dust ; his great example will outlive the brush of the painter and the 
chisel of the sculptor, for great examples are indeed imperishable: 

'* They will resist the empire of decay, 
When time is o'er and worlds have passed away. 
Cold in the dust the perislied heart may lie, 
But that which warmed it once can never die." 

After the conclusion of the presentation^ the Board of Direc- 
tors, in company with Bishop Galleher, i)roceeded to tlie statue, 
and the Bishoj), in the presence of stich persons as were present, 
X^ronounced his benediction on the work. 

And then, on motion, the meeting adjourned. 

By order of the President : 

W. I. HODGSOX, Secretary. 

Company B, Battalion of Washington Artillery, Capt. Eugene 
May commanding, with a four-gun battery, fired, between 3 and 
4 o'clock, a salute of 100 guns in honor of the unveiling of the 
statue. 



i-BJa'IO 








LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 706 553 8 







